Wall Street ticks toward edge of its all-time high- The Week

    New York, Dec 5 (AP) The US stock market is ticking toward the edge of its all-time high on Friday as Wall Street drifts toward the finish of a quiet week.
     The S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent and is just 0.2 per cent below its record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 46 points, or 0.1 per cent, as of 9:35 am. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4 per cent higher. The Russell 2000 index of small stocks edged back 0.2 per cent from its record set the day before.
     Netflix offered some splash and fell 2.1 per cent after the streaming company said it would buy Warner Bros. following its split from Discovery Global. Netflix will pay USD 72 billion in cash and stock for the company behind HBO Max, “Casablanca” and “Harry Potter,” and Warner Bros. Discovery rose 2.6 per cent.
     Ulta Beauty jumped 11 per cent after the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Kecia Steelman said its customers are broadly feeling pressure, but Ulta saw growth across its categories, particularly in e-commerce. It raised its forecast for revenue over the full year.
     Another encouraging signal for the crucial holiday shopping season came from Victoria's Secret & Co. It reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it likewise raised its forecast for sales over the full year. Its stock jumped 14.4 per cent.
     They worked against a 3.9 per cent drop for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts forecast, though its profit topped expectations.
     The US stock market broadly has been much quieter this week. It's a respite following earlier weeks of sharp and scary swings driven by worries that too many dollars may be flowing into artificial-intelligence technology, along with concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates.
     After some back and forth, the widespread expectation among traders is that the Fed will cut its main interest rate next week in hopes of shoring up the slowing US job market. If it does, that would be the third cut of the year.
     Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can juice the economy. The downside is that they can worsen inflation, which is stubbornly remaining above the Fed's 2 per cent target.
     The S&P 500 has run back toward its all-time high, which was set in late October, in large part because of expectations for a coming cut to interest rates. That leaves the question of what Fed officials will do next year on rates, with traders waiting for any clues that may come out of next week's Fed meeting.
     In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady amid the wait. The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.11 per cent, where it was late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Fed will do, edged up to 3.54 per cent from 3.52 per cent.
     In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
     Germany's DAX returned 0.9 per cent, and South Korea's Kospi jumped 1.8 per cent for two of the world's bigger gains.
     Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 1.1 per cent after data showed household spending in Japan fell 3.0 per cent in October from a year earlier. It was the sharpest drop since January 2024. Japanese markets have been shaky recently after the Bank of Japan hinted that hikes to interest rates may be coming. (AP) RD
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Wall Street ticks toward edge of its all-time high

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